Uppsala University is ranked 102nd place among 1,400 universities throughout the world in the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking of the world’s best universities in 2020.

University rankings attempt to compare and rank a number of educational institutions in lists, often based on a quality perspective. Normally the universities themselves do not produce the rankings. Instead, they are compiled by media, government agencies and various organisations.

Documentation for the rankings can come from various sources:

-official statistics (national or from a certain higher education institution);
-bibliometrics (analysis of the publication of scholarly articles and their impact);
-analyses via the internet, such as in the form of questionnaires to educational institutions, students, and employers.
-These various sources yield a variety of data, and different aspects (indicators) are weighed against each other and combined into a final figure that can be presented as a grade or measure of the quality of a particular university.

The following university rankings are among the oldest, best-known and most recognised in the media:

-Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings (THE) 

-QS World University Rankings
-Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), “the Shanghai Ranking”
These three rankings aim to include both education and research but focus mostly on research. That is particularly true of ARWU, which by and large focuses only on research excellence.

Uppsala University has placed high on the list among the best universities in the world in the three major international rankings: ARWU, QS and THE. But Uppsala University’s ranking on the lists has varied somewhat over the last seven years, when it has ranged between 60th and 117th place.